Welcome to Books of the Month, a book club curated monthly with works from authors within the College of Letters & Science at UC Davis. This April, we honor Arab American Heritage Month with selections highlighting activist history within Arab American communities and abroad, as well as multiple cultural histories.

When the most recent war broke out between Israel and Palestine's leaders in the Gaza Strip, UC Davis Associate Professors Sven-Erik Rose and Mairaj Syed decided to confront the controversial topic head on, facilitating talks on campus and teaching a class on antisemitism and Islamophobia. Students were asked to think critically about the past and to question narratives that use stereotypes to pit people against each other.

A scholar of South Indian religions, Archana Venkatesan explains the deep symbolism and the many meanings of the kamala, or lotus, which are shared by different faith traditions in the subcontinent.